Trickle-up Report Writing: the Impact of a Pro-arrest Policy for Domestic Disturbances

This study used police reports to examine the impact of a proarrest policy change for domestic disturbances. Insofar as the new policy reflected a “get tough” approach, the policy was expected to have a “trickle-up effect”: More official attention would be given to cases stereotyped as being less serious. Seven indicators, reflecting both legal and social definitions of seriousness, were taken from systematic samples of 96 police reports before the proarrest policy and 157 incident reports after the policy went into effect. No changes in the monthly arrests and no differences in the type of cases in which arrests were made corresponded to the policy change. We found differences, however, in the kinds of cases that were written up after the policy was instituted. The changes in report writing were consistent with a trickle-up effect.